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News From The
Past

November 14, 2002

Dedicating
a road to Honor

Special to The News Journal/PAT CROWE
II
Brothers Jeff (left) and Jim Connor unveil a new street sign Wednesday
in the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Glasgow named after
their father, World War II hero and Medal of Honor winner James P.
Connor.

Members
of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 475 fire a salute Wednesday at the
veterans cemetery.

George
R. Taylor of VFW Post 475 plays taps at the Medal of Honor dedication
Wednesday.

Medal
of Honor recipient James P. Connor, honored Wednesday, is the most
recent of 14 Delawareans to receive the country's highest military
decoration:

Delaware celebrates its
latest Medal of Honor recipient by dedicating a road in his name

By ROBIN BROWN
Bear Bureau reporter

The main road of the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery
near Glasgow was named Wednesday for the state's most recent recipient of the
Medal of Honor, Army Sgt. James P. Connor.

Nearly 250 veterans, government officials, military
leaders, friends and relatives gathered in the cold afternoon under an outdoor
tent at the cemetery where flags marked every grave, including Connor's. The
Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs played host at the event, praising
Connor with speeches, recollections and the unveiling of a new road sign and
state historic marker.

Cemetery administrator J.J. Jones said the sign and
marker will be installed near the facility's pond.

Wilmington-born Connor earned his medal on a World War
II battlefield, a Nazi-held beach in France being cleared for Allied troops'
landing, according to a 1944 account. Seriously injured three times, Connor,
then 25, led his outnumbered platoon after its officers were killed and shot
two snipers himself.

Speaker Ron Gough, a veteran and historian who developed
Dover Air Force Base's Medal of Honor exhibit with Connor's help, told how his
inspiring friend became a national symbol as the war ended. After Connor's
battlefield decoration, President Harry S. Truman invited him to the White
House for personal thanks, said Gough, a state education spokesman.

Truman and Connor were visiting in the Oval Office when
the German supreme commander called to surrender, Gough said. Truman then took
Connor with him to announce to the world that the war was over.

Gough quoted Truman's answer as to why the Nazis gave
up: "The reason they did this is because I threatened to send Jim Connor
back to Europe."

Connor was Delaware's last and only living of 14 state
Medal of Honor recipients. After his 1994 death, he became the only recipient
buried in the state's veterans' cemeteries.

One of Connor's four sons, John of Bear, spoke Tuesday
on behalf of his family.

He said he never understood his father's nickname,
"Smiles."

"When we were growing up, we didn't see him smile
once. He was always chasing us around the table," he said. "I think
my brothers will attest to that."

Later, John Connor mulled how his father would have
reacted to Wednesday's ceremony.

"He would say everybody was making a fuss over
nothing, because that's the way he was," he said.